SCOTT BEVAN: Ireland may be known for its religious conservatism, but the country's politicians have just voted to make abortion, in some cases, legal.

Overnight, they passed controversial new legislation that will allow abortion in limited cases where the mother's life is at risk.

The bill went through the lower house 127 to 31 after marathon discussions.

The legislation is also expected to pass Ireland's Upper House, where the government enjoys a majority.

Now the country had focussed on changes to abortion laws after the death of a 31-year-old woman in a Galway hospital last October.

She had sought a termination when told she was miscarrying, but the request was refused as her life was deemed not at risk at the time.

Well, just after this vote, I spoke with Sinead Ahern from the activist organisation, Choice Ireland.

SINEAD AHERN: We're very pleased this evening that the vote has gone through the Lower House of Parliament with such a clear majority. We're very pleased that the government has finally taken action on abortion in Ireland and is guaranteeing women's rights to terminate a pregnancy when their life is in jeopardy but it's worth remembering that this is incredibly narrow legislation for Irish women.

They can only terminate their pregnancies if an abortion is the only way their lives can be saved and this is a very serious issue for Irish women. From 10 or 11 Irish women leave the country every day to terminate pregnancies abroad and the UK and farther afield and we feel that the government now needs to address this issue and allow women for example who've been raped, who are carrying pregnancies that can't survive outside the womb, women who their partner have trapped to their house by continuing their pregnancy, all of these other very difficult and very tragic situations but this legislation won't affect and won't help.

We believe that those women need to be helped and the government needs to legislate.

SCOTT BEVAN: So, if the legislation does pass both houses in practice then, in light of what you've just said, what will actually change? What does remain the same?

SINEAD AHERN: Very little practically changes. As it stands, after a Supreme Court ruling abortion is legalised in cases where there is a threat to the life of the woman and where abortion is the only way that that threat could be averted.

In practice, that's going to stay the same. What is a big change for Ireland though is that now doctors will have guidance that allow them to know for certain when they can intervene.

We've had a very tragic case last year here in Ireland where a young Indian woman who was 17 weeks pregnant and was experiencing what was described as an incomplete miscarriage. She was told that she was having a miscarriage but there was still a foetal heartbeat and she was denied the termination because there was still a foetal heartbeat and she developed an infection and died.

But one of the recommendations of the inquest and an investigation into her death is suggesting there that the reason she died was because doctors didn't know when legally they could intervene.

So what this does is it protects doctors and allows them to intervene to save women's lives essentially.

SCOTT BEVAN: What has the public said about this issue through opinion polls for example?

SINEAD AHERN: Well, what the opinion polls are telling us that as many as 70 or 80 per cent of Irish people believe that abortion should be available in cases of a threat to life, a threat to health, rape, fatal foetal abnormalities and all of many other very difficult circumstances that women find themselves in.

But there's also a significant, nearly 50 per cent of Irish people who believe that it is a woman's right to choose and who believe that we need to stop just having woman travelling everyday to the UK and we need to allow them to terminate their pregnancies here.

SCOTT BEVAN: I did see one anti-abortion campaigner said after this decision that this is a 'terrible crime on the heart and soul of this nation". How much damage could this decision do to Ireland's self-image?

SINEAD AHERN: I think the lack of legislation has done far more damage to Ireland's self-image. Last year we had the absolutely appalling deathly picture of a beautiful, vibrant young woman who lost her life because we didn't have legislation allowing doctors to intervene.

I think that that has been far more damaging for our image abroad and I think it's been very damaging for women as well to have that sense that their lives aren't protected and that they're not safe.

I think this is a very positive step forward for Ireland. Although it doesn't represent a huge change in the law, I think it represents something, something very significant in terms of this is one of the very first times on the issue of abortion where the Irish government and parliamentarians have stood up to a very vocal and very well-funded anti-abortion minority who have stifled debate and generated stigma for so many decades around this issue and I think this is a real sign that Ireland is moving beyond being a country that's entirely wrapped up in its identity as Catholic and moving much closer to an identity as a modern nation with basic human rights.

SCOTT BEVAN: There has been a lot of political division. How likely is that the political will will stay in place that this will keep moving forward as you hope and wish it does so or will politicians baulk at taking this further?

SINEAD AHERN: I think something very different is happening in Ireland now. For the first time, nearly ever, the real stories of women who are affected by our ban on abortion are being told and women are speaking out about their experiences and I think our politicians are listening and I think our politicians now understand that we can't avoid this issue any longer.

So I do think they'll continue and I do think that tonight's vote and the very positive reaction that I'm sure it's going to get will give them the resolve to carry on.